On Sunday, a major fire broke out aboard two LPG carriers during an allegedly illegal ship-to-ship transfer off Bangladesh.

The LPG carrier Captain Nikolas was moored off Kutubdia, Chattogram over the weekend to offload its cargo to a lighterage vessel, the B-LPG Sophia. At about 0045 hours Sunday morning, a fire broke out aboard both vessels during cargo transfer operations. The Bangladesh Coast Guard and Bangladeshi Navy responded to the scene with a total of seven vessels, and they brought the fire aboard both vessels under control.

31 crewmembers jumped over the side from both vessels to escape the flames, and all were pulled from the water. No significant injuries were reported.

According to New Age Bangladesh, the Captain Nikolas escaped the fire relatively unscathed, but the Sophia sustained significant damage.

The LPG Operators Association of Bangladesh (LOAB) claims that the origin of the cargo aboard Captain Nikolas was misdeclared, and that it actually came from Iran, a sanctioned supplier. Captain Nikolas' AIS record shows a weeklong gap in mid-September, just before she departed the Persian Gulf, according to data provided by Pole Star.

CPA Secretary Mohd Omar Faruk told The Business Standard that the vessel was searched and no evidence of an illicit cargo was found. The papers aboard showed that the Captain Nikolas took on the LPG in Dubai or Oman, Faruk said.

The Chittagong Port Authority has set up a committee to determine the cause of the fire, with a rapid one-week timetable for completing the investigation, according to New Age.

Captain Nikolas is a 50,000 dwt LPG carrier built in 1992 and flagged in the Cook Islands. It was detained in Hunen, China in January for two issues with fire protection in the cargo deck area, among other fire safety issues - and was cited for the same problem again when it returned to Hunen in March.

The incidents aboard Captain Nikolas and B-LPG Sophia were the third and fourth major vessel fires off Bangladesh within two weeks. A blaze broke out aboard the tanker Banglar Shourabh on October 4, killing one crewmember, and a fire aboard the tanker Banglar Jyoti (video below) killed three on September 30.

Weakened but still powerful Typhoon Kraton hit southwestern Taiwan on Thursday, Oct. 3, causing hundreds of flights to be canceled and financial markets to close for the second straight day. Two people were killed as a result of the disaster.

Transportation and economic impacts of Typhoon Kraton:

The storm caused many flights to stop: all domestic flights were canceled for a second day, as well as 242 international flights. The high-speed railroad between north and south Taiwan suspended operations

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Ningbo-Zhoushan Port plans to establish a new terminal with a capacity of 2 million TEUs in the Fodu zone of the Liuheng port area.

According to DynaLiners, the new terminal is expected to include two berths capable of accommodating vessels of 24,000 TEUs, with the potential for future expansion to handle ships of up to 32,000 TEUs.

The construction works are scheduled to commence in October 2025 and the project is anticipated to be completed before the end of 2027.

On 16 September, an MSC feeder boxship, the 1,730 TEU MSC Riona, was involved in an accident at Yantian Port in southern China, resulting in part of a ship-to-shore crane collapsing onto the vessel.

As a result, a number of boxes from the ship fell into the sea, according to local sources.

MSC Riona was built in 1998 and was deployed on an intra-Asia service.

The accident occurred around 8:40 am, causing the suspension of operations at berth two of the Shenzhen port. At the time of writing, no injuries have been reported.

Terminals in Hong Kong and southern China have stopped handling containers for today (5 September) as Super Typhoon Yagi approaches.

Hong Kong Observatory has issued the No. 8 signal today and this is expected to be in place until 6 September. The observatory has determined Yagi to be a mature storm. Consequently, schools have been ordered to shut and outdoor activities are discouraged. Several domestic ferry services have also been suspended.

Yagi, the Japanese word for goat and Capricorn, is set to move 300km (186 miles) to the southwest of Hong Kong tonight and tomorrow morning.

The observatory said: “Gales associated with Yagi are set to edge closer to the Pearl River Estuary later today. Local winds will strengthen further and weather will deteriorate.”

Yantian International Container Terminal said in a WeChat notification that handling of empty containers stopped at 3am local time today, although loaded containers will still be accepted.

Hong Kong Container Terminals 4, 6, and 7, as well as COSCO-HIT Terminal and Asia Container Terminals, stopped all container deliveries at 12:00 noon local time today.